WCU, NSA, and EBCI sign MOA to work on Cherokee Language Revitalization

Western Carolina University Chancellor John Bardo June 5 committed WCU to joining a community-university partnership focused on revitalizing the Cherokee language.

“Language does more than allow us to communicate with each other,” Bardo said. “Language is how we conceptualize the world. I’m very excited that Western is a part of keeping alive what it means to be Cherokee.”

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the Cherokee Nation and Northeastern State University, in Tahlequah, Okla. (capital of the Cherokee Nation) are Western’s partners in the effort. Bardo formally committed Western to the partnership by adding his signature to a memorandum of agreement between all parties. Eastern Band Principal Chief Michell Hicks accompanied Bardo during the signing, which took place during the fourth annual Language Revitalization Symposium in Cherokee, an event WCU helped plan and sponsor.

While both the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Western Carolina University have maintained a concerted effort to revitalize the Cherokee language, a recent grant from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation will enable them to expand upon these past efforts. The nearly half-million dollar grant will provide funds for establishing a Cherokee language immersion school, as well as hiring additional staff to help establish a multi-year revitalization plan. The vast majority of speakers are in their 50s or older, creating a need for qualified language instructors to teach younger generations of Cherokees. While WCU has offered Cherokee language classes since the 1970s, this new initiative will enable them to more effectively train new speakers to teach, and create new speakers to meet the demands of the future.

Thanks to funding from the Cherokee Studies office, Angel Ragan will spend this summer interviewing Eastern Band veterans of twentieth century wars, as well as various Native American veterans of the Vietnam War. She will be spending a week in June and one in August interviewing veterans on the Qualla Boundary and the rest of the summer she will be traveling to Texas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Oklahoma interviewing Native American Vietnam veterans about their experiences. Ragan plans on collecting the interviews and memorabilia and publishing them in a DVD format, which will accompany a book version of her oral history project. Angel Ragan will begin her second year as a graduate student in the department of History this fall.

Professor Emeritus Bill Anderson and Assistant Professor Andrew Denson will be developing an online course this summer that focuses on the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians' history. Drs Anderson and Denson, both of whom are members of the History department with strong ties to the Cherokee Studies office, will be expanding a course that was designed last spring and summer in conjunction with the Cherokee Nation. While this course will be offered in a physical classroom this fall, the online version will enable students to gain access to the materials who might otherwise not be able to attend the two week seminar.

In addition to the online course, Dr. Anderson is currently working with a recent graduate of WCU's History and Cherokee Studies departments, Robert Gilmer, on creating an online archive of documents and articles relating to the history of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. While this archive will be used for the online course, it also will serve the Eastern Band community by making these documents available to anyone with an internet connection. Materials such as letters, treaties, legal documents, and government reports will be digitized and organized over the summer thanks to support from WCU's Cherokee Studies office.

Dr. Coates is a citizen and employee of the Cherokee Nation who will once again be teaching the Cherokee Nation History course in Cherokee, North Carolina. This year's course will be spread out over two weekends, with the first being September 15th-17th and the second being September 29th through October 1st. Course hours will be from 6-9 on each Friday, and then a full 8 hours on each Saturday and Sunday. During the intervening weekend, Dr. Coates will be offering public lectures at Western Carolina University. The Cherokee Fall Fair will also be held the week after the course ends, offering participants the opportunity to spend additional time in Cherokee to attend the fair.

The course was designed by the Cherokee Nation, but it will also feature Eastern Band history. While the class is offered as a history course, it is actually "a course in strategy," according to Dr. Coates. With an emphasis on Cherokee political history, the course is designed to instill a sense of nationalism and citizenship in the students who take the course. More information on the Cherokee Nation History Course (Word document).

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians' Principal Chief Michell Hicks and Western Carolina University's Chancellor John Bardo signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Friday, October 21, 2005. This agreement formalized a long range plan of cooperation between the University and the Tribe to work together on to strengthen the economy and cultural diversity of western North Carolina.